ABSTRACT
Inevitably during the course of the term you will learn how the head is seen by other members of staff and by the children. You will hear about particular disputes and decisions, and perhaps about his/her earlier career. The head may be willing to talk to you, and it is certainly worth asking if you can talk about what the job involves and how decisions are taken. Heads have very different styles, but try to find out from the head how decisions are made about school structure. (Are classes mixed ability or is there some form of streaming? Is there a house system? What are the main departments of the school?) Ask about finance-how much money does the school have each year? What needs to be paid for? How is it divided? Ask about policyhow does he/she see the future of the school? How does the school relate to other local schools? To the community? Ask about administration and control-how does the head see the LEA? How often does he see the Chief Education Officer? What does he see as the role of advisers, teacher’s centres, local colleges of education? Ask about curriculum-is the school involved in any curriculum development projects? How did this involvement come about? What have been the main issues and problems?
